Pillar

Pronunciation

• GenAm IPA: /ˈpɪlÉš/
• RP IPA: /"pIl@/
• Rhymes: -Il@(r\)
• Hyphenation: pil + lar

Origin

From Middle English, from Old French pilier , from Medieval Latin pilare ("a pillar"), from Latin pila ("a pillar, pier, mole").

Full definition of pillar

Noun

1. A large post, often used as supporting architecture.
2. Something resembling such a structure.a pillar of smoke
3. An essential part of something that provides support.He's a pillar of the community.
4. (Roman Catholic) A portable ornamental column, formerly carried before a cardinal, as emblematic of his support to the church.
5. The centre of the volta, ring, or manege ground, around which a horse turns.

Synonyms

• column, sile

Derived terms

• A-pillar, B-pillar, C-pillar, D-pillar
• earth pillar
• from pillar to post
• pillar box
• pillar of the community
• sun pillar

Verb

1. To provide with pillars or added strength as if from pillars.
• 1910, James Morgan, Blast furnace practice, Insufficient penetration, or faulty distribution of the blast, may give rise to "pillaring" — that is, the formation of a pillar or column of cold material extending up through the middle of the hearth
• 1996, National Academy of Engineering, First annual Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering, We discovered this new class of compounds in our search for a means of generating porosity by pillaring layered double hydroxides
• 1998, , Functional and smart materials, In the pillaring-grafting reaction the dimensionality increases by pillaring the organic or precursory polynuclear metal hydroxyl cations into an inorganic layer structured matrix.
• 2004, Scott M. Auerbach, Handbook of layered materials, It was then that scientists started to create porosity in the interlayer space of layered clays. developing the first pillared clays with pores in the larger microporous region.

Anagrams

• Aprill